Allainces

In regards to Star’s presence in Africa, Lufthansa pretty much has the major cities covered. SAA will simply give them a stronger presence, albeit all the way down at the southern tip.

In regards to Star’s presence in Africa, Lufthansa pretty much has the major cities covered. SAA will simply give them a stronger presence, albeit all the way down at the southern tip.

With regards to Africa. There are several European airlines with fairly reasonable coverage, and these tend to follow typical patterns based on former colonies. Yes BA has a good coverage, although frequency to some routes is poor (a demand driven issue). Air France has good coverage of Africa, as does SN Brussels (Africa makes up the majority of their long haul flights). Kenya Airways is partly owned by KLM and so is automatically aligned in this way, especially as it has codeshare arrangements with Northwest aswell.

Remember also that BA have an agreement with Comair in South Africa offering a distinct benefit that other European Airlines have not got. The agreements with Comair cover a number of points not only in South Africa itself but in other Southern African countries, the use of this agreement has tended to be BA’s preference compared to direct services.

With regards to Africa. There are several European airlines with fairly reasonable coverage, and these tend to follow typical patterns based on former colonies. Yes BA has a good coverage, although frequency to some routes is poor (a demand driven issue). Air France has good coverage of Africa, as does SN Brussels (Africa makes up the majority of their long haul flights). Kenya Airways is partly owned by KLM and so is automatically aligned in this way, especially as it has codeshare arrangements with Northwest aswell.

Remember also that BA have an agreement with Comair in South Africa offering a distinct benefit that other European Airlines have not got. The agreements with Comair cover a number of points not only in South Africa itself but in other Southern African countries, the use of this agreement has tended to be BA’s preference compared to direct services.

Dont SAA have investments in Air Tanzania. With that and any other investments they will add a lot extra to Star

Dont SAA have investments in Air Tanzania. With that and any other investments they will add a lot extra to Star

Hey, don’t knock it. Most of my flying this last twelve months has been on BD, UA and LH. The across-Star recognition of frequent flyers has certainly influenced my choice of airlines – it brings benefits not only for in terms of miles accumulation, but also as they allow me to use express checkin and lounges regardless of airline and class of travel. Without Star Alliance my BD Diamond Club mileage balance would look a bit sick and I’d be struggling to make gold this year. With Star, I’ve done enough miles for two “free” business class trips to the USA, am closing on a free to Australia, or with a few more trips might even see if I can redeem for a round-the-world.

I’m feelin’ you Skymonster, I’m feelin’ you! I could add on to this, but where do I start? Let’s just say I have 200,000 miles right now, plus have redeemed another 500,000 or so at some point for award travel in the last 6-7 years. Another 1K gets me an around the world flight on business class, so that’s what I’m aiming for. Although, I might redeem and get an award travel ticket at some point between now and then. Anybody can say all they want along the lines of Star is getting too big, and all this other nonsense. These same people, however, have not been in as many Star partner lounges across the globe as I have nor have gotten to avoid 1-hour long queue’s for checking in and for security lines even when flying economy, like I have. I don’t fly for business, either. The more airlines, the merrier.

Just to touch a little bit on route overlap, this is not as prevalent on Star, I don’t think. Besides, I think that 2 or more carriers in an alliance can operate the same routing. They augment each other, if anything, thereby giving the alliance more options. For instance both LH and UA operate ORD-FRA and IAD-FRA, but again, this provides more flights and convenient connections. SQ still operates a FRA-JFK continueing from SIN, even though LH has 4 daily FRA-JFK flights. UA no longer operates the LAX-AKL route, because NZ has 2 dailies, and UA’s planes don’t have to sit on the tarmac at AKL for 12 hours. NZ no longer operates SYD-LAX because UA has 10 weeklies, and instead started the AKL-SFO run which did not exist previously. Bmi tookover one of AC’s routes recently, I believe it was MAN-YYZ or something.

Hey, don’t knock it. Most of my flying this last twelve months has been on BD, UA and LH. The across-Star recognition of frequent flyers has certainly influenced my choice of airlines – it brings benefits not only for in terms of miles accumulation, but also as they allow me to use express checkin and lounges regardless of airline and class of travel. Without Star Alliance my BD Diamond Club mileage balance would look a bit sick and I’d be struggling to make gold this year. With Star, I’ve done enough miles for two “free” business class trips to the USA, am closing on a free to Australia, or with a few more trips might even see if I can redeem for a round-the-world.

I’m feelin’ you Skymonster, I’m feelin’ you! I could add on to this, but where do I start? Let’s just say I have 200,000 miles right now, plus have redeemed another 500,000 or so at some point for award travel in the last 6-7 years. Another 1K gets me an around the world flight on business class, so that’s what I’m aiming for. Although, I might redeem and get an award travel ticket at some point between now and then. Anybody can say all they want along the lines of Star is getting too big, and all this other nonsense. These same people, however, have not been in as many Star partner lounges across the globe as I have nor have gotten to avoid 1-hour long queue’s for checking in and for security lines even when flying economy, like I have. I don’t fly for business, either. The more airlines, the merrier.

Just to touch a little bit on route overlap, this is not as prevalent on Star, I don’t think. Besides, I think that 2 or more carriers in an alliance can operate the same routing. They augment each other, if anything, thereby giving the alliance more options. For instance both LH and UA operate ORD-FRA and IAD-FRA, but again, this provides more flights and convenient connections. SQ still operates a FRA-JFK continueing from SIN, even though LH has 4 daily FRA-JFK flights. UA no longer operates the LAX-AKL route, because NZ has 2 dailies, and UA’s planes don’t have to sit on the tarmac at AKL for 12 hours. NZ no longer operates SYD-LAX because UA has 10 weeklies, and instead started the AKL-SFO run which did not exist previously. Bmi tookover one of AC’s routes recently, I believe it was MAN-YYZ or something.

I’m not knocking anything mate!!!.

I’m not knocking anything mate!!!.

Hey, don’t knock it. Most of my flying this last twelve months has been on BD, UA and LH. The across-Star recognition of frequent flyers has certainly influenced my choice of airlines – it brings benefits not only for in terms of miles accumulation, but also as they allow me to use express checkin and lounges regardless of airline and class of travel. Without Star Alliance my BD Diamond Club mileage balance would look a bit sick and I’d be struggling to make gold this year. With Star, I’ve done enough miles for two “free” business class trips to the USA, am closing on a free to Australia, or with a few more trips might even see if I can redeem for a round-the-world.

Hey, don’t knock it. Most of my flying this last twelve months has been on BD, UA and LH. The across-Star recognition of frequent flyers has certainly influenced my choice of airlines – it brings benefits not only for in terms of miles accumulation, but also as they allow me to use express checkin and lounges regardless of airline and class of travel. Without Star Alliance my BD Diamond Club mileage balance would look a bit sick and I’d be struggling to make gold this year. With Star, I’ve done enough miles for two “free” business class trips to the USA, am closing on a free to Australia, or with a few more trips might even see if I can redeem for a round-the-world.

Emirates have always been a target for Star, but it has mainly been EK’s resistance to an alliance that has slowed things down. EK have always been a bit like this – witness how long it took them to set up a frequent flyer program, for example. Maybe EK will remain alone, but the alliances bandwagon is still rolling and sooner or later one of the other progressive Middle East carriers will sign up (Qatar, Etihad or even Gulf) and then maybe EK will have less choice about which alliance it goes into if it finally does decide to go the alliance route.

I am very surprised/shocked that EK is one of the only ‘major’ full service airlines that are not in an alliance….I doubt it will be long though.

Emirates have always been a target for Star, but it has mainly been EK’s resistance to an alliance that has slowed things down. EK have always been a bit like this – witness how long it took them to set up a frequent flyer program, for example. Maybe EK will remain alone, but the alliances bandwagon is still rolling and sooner or later one of the other progressive Middle East carriers will sign up (Qatar, Etihad or even Gulf) and then maybe EK will have less choice about which alliance it goes into if it finally does decide to go the alliance route.

I am very surprised/shocked that EK is one of the only ‘major’ full service airlines that are not in an alliance….I doubt it will be long though.

, and it does wonders for my bmi frequent flyer account! 😎

LOL 🙂

, and it does wonders for my bmi frequent flyer account! 😎

LOL 🙂

I think Star Alliance is great – I can get most places in the world on Star, and it does wonders for my bmi frequent flyer account! 😎

Because there are national carriers involved, carriers that don’t want to give up their “signature” routes, and because the alliances aren’t set up to take over their member’s business, there will always be some overlap. It isn’t huge in comparison to overall alliance or individual airline business, and is certainly no worse than the competition that existed pre-alliances. Schedule coordination that provides a better frequency is more likely a result of airlines joining alliances, rather than illimination of competition.

SA will be joining Star soon, with TP having been the most recent joiner. Whilst SA may not provide many direct links into Africa, they have a better African network than almost any other carrier from the region (as well as being one of relatively few “reputable” carriers from Africa). The South Africa market is big in itself, and it makes sense for Star to have more exposure there. The only other carriers I see as realistic potential alliance members are Kenya, Ethiopian and a maybe few from the north Africa region.

Emirates have always been a target for Star, but it has mainly been EK’s resistance to an alliance that has slowed things down. EK have always been a bit like this – witness how long it took them to set up a frequent flyer program, for example. Maybe EK will remain alone, but the alliances bandwagon is still rolling and sooner or later one of the other progressive Middle East carriers will sign up (Qatar, Etihad or even Gulf) and then maybe EK will have less choice about which alliance it goes into if it finally does decide to go the alliance route.

China is the next target – Star are in active talks with Air China and I suspect that they will be soon to join. If that happens, I wouldn’t be surprised to see SkyTeam or OneWorld courting China Southern.

Andy

I think Star Alliance is great – I can get most places in the world on Star, and it does wonders for my bmi frequent flyer account! 😎

Because there are national carriers involved, carriers that don’t want to give up their “signature” routes, and because the alliances aren’t set up to take over their member’s business, there will always be some overlap. It isn’t huge in comparison to overall alliance or individual airline business, and is certainly no worse than the competition that existed pre-alliances. Schedule coordination that provides a better frequency is more likely a result of airlines joining alliances, rather than illimination of competition.

SA will be joining Star soon, with TP having been the most recent joiner. Whilst SA may not provide many direct links into Africa, they have a better African network than almost any other carrier from the region (as well as being one of relatively few “reputable” carriers from Africa). The South Africa market is big in itself, and it makes sense for Star to have more exposure there. The only other carriers I see as realistic potential alliance members are Kenya, Ethiopian and a maybe few from the north Africa region.

Emirates have always been a target for Star, but it has mainly been EK’s resistance to an alliance that has slowed things down. EK have always been a bit like this – witness how long it took them to set up a frequent flyer program, for example. Maybe EK will remain alone, but the alliances bandwagon is still rolling and sooner or later one of the other progressive Middle East carriers will sign up (Qatar, Etihad or even Gulf) and then maybe EK will have less choice about which alliance it goes into if it finally does decide to go the alliance route.

China is the next target – Star are in active talks with Air China and I suspect that they will be soon to join. If that happens, I wouldn’t be surprised to see SkyTeam or OneWorld courting China Southern.

Andy

Any airline from the middle east would be of great value as EK is having phenominal growth as well as Etihad but on a smaller scale. Qatar is also having some strong growth.

Any airline from the middle east would be of great value as EK is having phenominal growth as well as Etihad but on a smaller scale. Qatar is also having some strong growth.